So Who Needs a Bird? Vegetarian Entrees for the Feast

By DENISE LANDIS

Published: November 20, 2002

TAKE away the turkey and what have you got? At most Thanksgiving feasts, it's a table full of vegetable dishes in various guises. But no single one has the star quality of the bird.

''Even among vegetarians, folks like the tradition of a big centerpiece dish -- an impressive main dish that evokes oohs and ahs from everyone at the table,'' said Eric Tucker, chef of the Millennium Restaurant, a vegetarian place in San Francisco.

Whether you are a vegetarian planning a meatless Thanksgiving for like-minded friends or a turkey lover playing host to some vegetarians next Thursday, you have plenty of vegetable dishes to choose from that are hearty enough to claim entree status, and beautiful enough to elicit their share of ''oohs!'' too.

One view of vegetarian dishes -- an outdated one -- is that they are too simple, and therefore lack elegance. Chefs like Mr. Tucker disprove this with dishes like the one he created last Thanksgiving: a rich mix of chestnuts, sage and corn bread roasted in squash and mounded with an apple-cider spiced ragout. There were also stuffed baby pumpkins and a roulade of wild mushrooms with seitan (wheat gluten) wrapped in pastry. The pastry was layered with yuba, a tofu product that has a crisp texture when roasted.

Mollie Katzen, the author of many vegetarian cookbooks, crowds her Thanksgiving table with vegetable dishes. She is not a vegetarian, but her 11-year-old daughter is, and so are a few of her guests.

This year she has developed a new recipe for the holiday: baked sweet onions stuffed with wild rice and pecans, accompanied by a tangy orange sauce with dried cranberries.

''What makes this recipe fun is that we normally think of fruit as sweet and vegetables as savory, but here they trade roles,'' Ms. Katzen said. ''Roasting caramelizes the sugar in onions to make them sweet, and the fruit in the glaze lends a nice tart contrast. There's also a juxtaposition of textures: the onions become soft and almost slippery, the rice and dried cranberries are chewy, and the chopped pecans give just the right crunchiness.''

For many home cooks -- vegetarian or not -- creating new dishes is part of the fun and spirit of the holiday.

''To me, the biggest blessing of Thanksgiving is when the people I love get together and cook,'' said Julie Jordan, a cookbook author and a consultant on vegetarian foods for Wegmans supermarkets. ''We have a whole day. We drink wine, listen to music, dance in the kitchen, talk about our lives and create. Because my life is filled with cooks, we each bring ingredients we are especially fond of, then brainstorm as to what to make with them. Together, we try things we would never have made on our own.''

In one of those kitchen sessions, Ms. Jordan speculated that hazelnuts in their skins would add flavor and color to Thanksgiving pastry dough. Her friend Caryn Sheckler had ideas for fillings. The result of their teamwork was a pie with a high golden crown enclosing a savory mixture of sweet brussels sprouts, spinach, feta cheese and roasted red peppers.

''It's a pleasure to make,'' Ms. Jordan said, ''because the colors of the filling -- green, white and red -- are so gorgeous. and it smells absolutely wonderful.'' Vegetarians, she noted, appreciate the efforts others make to include their food preferences in the holiday meal.

''My mother instituted the custom of making a thick long-simmered split-pea soup for me along with whatever dishes she prepared for the rest of the family,'' she said. ''After my parents died, my younger brother took up my mother's role, and every year he makes me spinach-lentil soup. I was very touched when I realized that it was a tradition and I could look forward to it and count on it.''

WILD RICE AND PECAN STUFFED ONIONS WITH CRANBERRY-ORANGE GLAZE

Adapted from Mollie Katzen

Time: 1 hour 45 minutes

1/2 cup wild rice

6 medium Vidalia, Maui or other sweet onions

Olive oil

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

6 tablespoons finely chopped pecans

2 teaspoons minced garlic

Salt

1 12-ounce can orange juice concentrate

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoon prepared mustard

2 teaspoons light-color honey

3/4 cup (packed) dried cranberries, more for garnish

1 seedless orange, sliced, for garnish

1 bunch chives, for garnish.

1. In a small saucepan, combine rice with 1 1/4 cups water. Bring to a boil, cover tightly, and reduce heat to low. Simmer until tender and water is absorbed, about 1 hour. Remove from heat, and set aside.

2. While rice is simmering, heat oven to 450 degrees. Trim a small slice from root end of each onion so that it will stand upright. Remove skins. Use a small sharp paring knife to cut tops off onions, and with a series of small slits, hollow out a cylinder 1 inch wide and 2 inches deep. With a teaspoon, continue to hollow out onions to within about 1/2 inch of bottom. Leave enough thickness in the walls to retain their shape. Mince onion taken from cavities, and set aside.

3. Rub onions with olive oil. Oil a baking dish large enough to hold them snugly in a single layer. Place in lower half of oven and roast until they are tender but still hold their shape, about 25 minutes. Remove pan from heat, and allow to cool.